The Hyper-Seal

The seal of the Vice President of the United States, like that of the President, is protected under 18 USC Sec. 713 – you CAN NOT HAZ, at least if you’re subject to US law. I suppose that this is why the seal was not in the backdrop behind the candidates at the Vice-Presidential debate held today.

To use or to simulate the seal is not permitted… but why merely simulate, when you can beat reality at its own game? Enter the hyperreal.

Or indeed, the hyper-seal. Forget staid heraldry. This shield is a 3D object protruding into the space. Not a depiction, a virtualisation. The eagle is… surfing on the shield? Surmounting it, anyway, and crushing the arrows and the olive branch beneath its talons. Instead of “E Puribus Unum” (Out of Many, One), we have THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION FOREVER, like a sailor’s tattoo.

This eagle says I MADED YOU A GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE BUT I EATED IT.

And the source… appears to be a campaign slogan and image from the unsuccessful re-election campaign of the one-term Republican President Benjamin Harrison and his VP Whitelaw Reid. The image therefore dates from 1892, though its presentation above makes it look decidedly contemporary.http://library24.library.cornell.edu/collections/pam/78713-1774.html